11:18 PM: We just got a call from Southwest Precinct police about a sad case they are handling tonight, and they asked if we could help them solve it: People called 911 around 8:30 tonight to report a little boy crossing the street alone at 35th/Avalon. Nobody had reported a missing child, and police checked apartment buildings in the area but so far haven’t figured out whose child he is. They say CPS is on the way, to arrive after midnight, but maybe you know of someone looking for their child who hasn’t yet called police. They describe him as Black, maybe 5 years old or so but not very communicative, at least 3 feet tall, wearing pajamas with a blue top and multicolor bottom, maroon and tan Crocs shoes and black socks. If you have any information that might connect him with his family, call 911. The SPD incident number is 24-114442.

SUNDAY, 6:55 PM: We just talked with a Southwest Precinct lieutenant who confirms that the child’s family has been found. He didn’t have full details but says it was some sort of issue involving the child’s care provider while the child’s parent(s) were at work overnight.

THURSDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE: Colleen has been found and is safe.

Earlier:

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Out of the WSB inbox this afternoon:

In the interest of keeping our neighborhood a safe place, I am writing to let you know of an incidence of stalking that happened to me this week in our neighborhood:

This Tuesday morning around 9:40 am I was walking east up Admiral and walked by a car that was parked in the “dead zone” between 49th Ave SW and Garlough Ave SW. When I was almost to 48th on SW Lander, he drove the wrong way up Lander, pulled over in his car and started talking to me. He let his feelings be known that he liked me and wanted to see me twice, which I answered with “NO” and “NO, I’m married.” and then he drove away. I was very distraught but dismissed it as a weird one-time occurrence. Wednesday I took my daughter to school and stayed for a school activity. Driving home, I saw his car again in the same place and time on Admiral; this was at about 9:15 am. Today, as I was running with my friend, west down Admiral he took a right turn in front of us from 51st onto Admiral and pulled over between 51st and Garlough at around 9:10 am.

After seeing him again this morning I called and made a police report. SPD gave me a case number (24-105089), told me to call 911 if he tries to make contact again, and asked that I put my neighborhood on high alert. I did not get a picture and do not remember any more than this: He presented as a white male with dark hair in his mid 30-40s. He was driving what I remember as a newer-looking black or very dark blue small sedan or hatchback with fully tinted windows. When I first walked by his car, the windows were cracked and I could smell cigarette smoke.

9:33 PM SUNDAY: Police are looking for evidence after suspected gunfire on Fauntleroy Way near SW Raymond. We’ve heard about it from multiple readers, including two who shared security-camera video/audio – in this clip, you hear the suspected shots right after cars pass by on Fauntleroy, about 29 seconds into the video. No injuries reported, and no confirmation yet of evidence found.

MONDAY AFTERNOON: We followed up with SPD today. Officers did not find any evidence (casings, damage, eyewitnesses, injuries).

(Saturday evening photo by Robert Spears – car wasn’t removed until Sunday morning)

Last weekend, that car remained in the water off Duwamish Head, in the 1200 block of Alki Avenue, for 34 hours following a one-car crash we told you about early Saturday. The 22-year-old driver, unhurt, was arrested for DUI, according to police. The question remained: How/why did he drive into the water? We’ve obtained the early version of the collision report. According to the narrative written by police, the driver was headed east/northbound at the time, so he crossed both directions of Alki Avenue before going over the curb and into the water. Here’s what the narrative says:

Multiple witnesses standing on Alki beach pier saw [vehicle] driving EB, struck the WB curb, rolled 2-3 times over the grass/trail, and then plunged into the water. The paths and side mirror and damage to curb correlate witnesses’ statements. … 2 witnesses [in a nearby building] saw car go over curb, rolled/spinned 360, then went into water.

The narrative also summarizes what the driver told police:

[Driver] said he drank two beers, drove down Alki, lost control of his car, hit the curb, and went into the water.

The driver is a Burien resident, according to the report. So far he has not been cited nor charged in this incident (or any others). We asked Seattle Parks earlier this week if the crash did any significant damage to the seawall or beach that would have to be repaired; they said no.

… it’s training, according to a notification given to dispatchers and heard on police radio a short time ago. They were planning to head into West Seattle from the southeast, toward Lincoln Park.

“If rock bottom was ever a thing, we’re probably there.” That’s how District 1 City Councilmember Rob Saka described the first statistic presented during this morning’s Public Safety Committee briefing about Seattle Police hiring and recruiting.

The briefing (full slide deck here) was focused more on recruiting/hiring processes than on specifics of where staffing stands now – aside from that one overall stat – so we don’t have, for example, a precinct-by-precinct breakdown of current staffing – other updates are given on that periodically. But the council did hear a lot about how recruiting and hiring works, and doesn’t work, right now.

The briefing was presented by a team led by Deputy Mayor Tim Burgess (a former police officer and city councilmember). One long-running factor, the contract negotiations with the officers’ union, is “very close” to agreement, Burgess said toward the briefing’s end, without elaborating. But many other factors affecting recruiting and hiring were discussed. “The problem of recruitment is not just a Seattle problem,” he and others at the table – including SPD Chief Adrian Diaz – stressed.

This group followed a briefing earlier in the meeting that included some revelations about what Councilmember Cathy Moore observed was a “clunky” process of moving candidates along through various stages of screening and testing – the length of time it takes to provide SPD with lists of qualified candidates, for example. “I don’t get a sense of urgency,” Moore said.

The process moves faster than it used to, councilmembers were told, but still could move faster. But the SPD and mayor’s-office team listed other factors – like starting salary, in which they said Seattle ranks 15th on a list of jurisdictions with which it competes for officers:

There was some discussion of incentives offered by other jurisdictions, such as take-home vehicles and housing subsidies (none of which are being currently offered or proposed by Seattle), Meantime, among the applicants SPD is getting, the ethnic diversity outstrips the city as a whole, but the gender diversity still lags far behind:

Councilmember Moore called out the low percentage of female applicants, noting that women said child care was a factor in their decisions, and saying she’d like to see “a plan” for addressing that. Scheduling challenges too. She also voiced concerns about problems such as sexual harassment that were raised in the recent “30 by 30” report – addressing SPD’s efforts in a nationwide initiative toward 30 percent female officers in sworn law enforcement. Chief Diaz said there’s a “women’s workgroup” and also noted that two-thirds of the SPD civilian staff is female.

Much time in the briefing was spent on the million-dollar-plus marketing/advertising plan for which SPD hired an outside agency; Burgess said its debut was followed by an “immediate uptick in applications.” Saka suggested later, though, that “we’re not going to market our way out of this,” but also offered that in addition to featuring the mayor and others, the marketing campaign should call attention to the changed council as well.

Besides spending money on advertising, SPD reps said they’re also strategizing with recruiters from private-sector companies and have meetings scheduled next month with firms including Microsoft, T-Mobile, and Nordstrom; they also talked about software programs they’re using to communicate more responsively with candidates. And they thanked councilmembers for their shows of support, such as attending roll calls at precincts. But they acknowledged that overall, the department lost more officers than it hired last year, so there is more work to do if they’re going to build back the numbers. (We’ll add video of today’s meeting when it’s available on the Seattle Channel website later.)

ADDED: Here’s the meeting video – this discussion starts 1 hour, 12 minutes in.

If a statewide initiative gets enough signatures to go to voters, the State Legislature first gets the chance to approve it, which would mean it will become law without going onto the ballot. That’s what just happened with Initiative 2113, which will lift restrictions that legislators placed on police pursuits three years ago (and loosened a bit last year). Unlike legislation, initiatives don’t require the governor’s signature – if both the State House and State Senate pass them, they will become law. Both votes happened today – the House voted in favor of it, 77-20, and the Senate vote was 36-13. According to the roll-call tallies on the Legislature’s website, all three West Seattleites representing the 34th District in the Legislature voted no – Senator Nguyễn and Representatives Emily Alvarado and Joe Fitzgibbon.

Under current state law, pursuits are allowed in six types of circumstances; under 2113, the authority becomes simply “There is reasonable suspicion a person has violated the law.” There are some caveats, such as that “The person poses a threat to the safety of others and the safety risks of failing to apprehend or identify the person are considered to be greater than the safety risks of the vehicular pursuit under the circumstances.” Officers also need to notify a supervisor, who will then oversee the pursuit, and they need to have gone through a particular type of training. You can read the initiative’s full text here. Initiatives passed by legislators become law 90 days after the end of their session, which in this case is Thursday. Departments can have more restrictive policies than state law allows, as has been the case with SPD (here’s their current policy).

Noting for the record: From more than a few neighborhoods in north West Seattle, people texted us tonight, wondering about what one reader described as “racing cars and loud bangs,” audible all the way up to Admiral. Reviewing police-radio audio, we note the activity was a summer-size crowd of drivers drawn to Don Armeni Boat Ramp. One police officer dispatched in the 7 pm hour reported back, “There’s too many people here for me to do anything.” But others were sent and before 8 pm, one officer reported that they were planning to close the entrance to Don Armeni, where police estimated hundreds of cars/drivers had gathered. There were no confirmed shots-fired incidents; some cars are modified to generate backfire noise similar to gunshots (early in the evening, eastbound on Roxbury, we were right behind one). No injury incidents logged.

7:23 PM: Avoid Delridge Way/SW Thistle for a while – northbound traffic on Delridge is blocked because of an emergency response. The SFD log and radio traffic describe the call as an overdose response.

7:32 PM: They’re getting traffic through by alternating directions through one lane.

7:44 PM: SFD medics were unable to revive the overdose victim, described over the air as a 40-year-old woman. The scene will be clearing.